What hidden headset

fortyone

Am trying to sort out a bike for a friend and noticed rust from the head tube. The headset needs replacing: current one is a Token threadless one, tapered 1 1/8 down to 1 1/5. The top part is normal sealed bearings at 45 degrees, but the bottom only has a plastic ball race (with rusty bearings which are replaceable). The inside of the head tube at the bottom is not angled and the bearings appear just to run on an inner surface, on top of the fork race that fits at the bottom. The whole lot should be replaced but I can't find anything similar on the internet and wonder if anyone can assist. Thank you

reaperactual

I've done various headsets but on mountain bikes. Road bikes also use the same standards of either integrated, semi integrated or external cup. This sounds like an integrated but a picture would help me or others in answering your question, can you get one?

masjer

It sounds like the bottom bearing has split, leaving the top race inside the head tube and the bottom race still on the forks.
Is the top bearing still ok (they often are)? If so it'd be much cheaper to just replace the bottom bearing.

fortyone

Many thanks for your comments - I looked further at the bottom race and decided that it must be removable: it was, and I knocked it out from the the inside down. Looking at the measurements, I ended up ordering a Deda IN 5 tapered headset (good price at £25.99), which should do the job.

Ben6899

masjer said:

It sounds like the bottom bearing has split, leaving the top race inside the head tube and the bottom race still on the forks.
Is the top bearing still ok (they often are)? If so it'd be much cheaper to just replace the bottom bearing.

Almost certainly this. In fact, I had this last week when replacing the headset on my Dolan - the bottom bearing ended up in three pieces. The bottom race will be on the fork steerer.